Recent viewings

[alandhopewell]

     HIDE AND CREEP (2004)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hide_and_Creep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knIqv9L-sW8

     Another minor gem from a compilation set, this time from Echo Bridge



     Not drop-dead (PTP) funny, but funny enough to recommend it.

[Jack]

I got a real kick out of Hide and Creep.  Especially when that one guy came in the house and they're asking him if he came up with a plan to defeat the zombies, and he's like "Nah I just went to get some more beer".  Or when they were complaining that the basketball game got pre-empted by all the zombie coverage.

[Torgo]

Some recent viewings and ratings out of 4 stars:

Shame ***1/2
Wreck-It Ralph ***
Father's Day ***
The Perks of Being a Wallflower ***1/2
Brave ***

[fulci420]

I watched the entire REC trilogy over the last week and was pretty damn impressed.

Rec-Hands down one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. We follow a news reporter as she follows the activities of a local firefighters overnight. They receive a call to an apartment complex, and it quickly becomes clear that there is some form of infection quickly spreading. As government officials quickly close off the building we follow the reporter always through the lenses of the cameraman in an attempt to survive.

I have to say this really worked for me, the scares actually made me jump out of my seat (very rare for me) and there was a terrifying atmosphere throughout. The sense of claustrophobia was greatly enhanced through the found footage and the special fx/makeup was great throughout. It's on youtube which is were I watched it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Htmmjz1MX9E

REC 2-Taking place just briefly after the events of the first film we follow a SWAT team as they enter the apartment complex, accompanied by a cameraman. In this film we learn a lot about the origin of the infection which I will not spoil here, as well as some other POV's through some teenagers who have entered the building out of curiosity. This one is not as frightening as the first one but the tradeoff is that there is a great deal more action. Being such a big fan of the first one I enjoyed seeing the story continue and think it's a worthwhile sequel.

REC 3-I actually watched this first not knowing anything about the series, it turns out that you don't need to know about the first two films in order to enjoy this as it is quite different in its approach. Starting off as a wedding is underway it makes perfect sense that we would have many different video cameras going and we switch between them as an idyllic marriage turns bad as an infected family member begins showing symptoms. I liked the found footage here quite a bit and the actors were charismatic and likeable especially the very attractive couple. About 20-25 minutes in as all hell is breaking lose the husband becomes frustrated with the cameraman and destroys his camera feeling that "the people need to know" is not a good enough excuse in such terrible danger. It's at this point that we switch to non found footage for the rest of the film a daring and IMO pretty cool choice.

Just as the camera approach is different so is the tone. For one this movie is pretty damn funny at points, at no point is it as scary as the first one which is actually not a problem with me. Instead we get great violence, awesome characters, and an overall great stylish approach to the film. I noticed a lot of fans of the first two films disliked this one but I feel if it was given a different title it would have got a much better reception as this is actually one of the best horror/comedies I have seen in recent time.

So overall I have to say I pretty much loved all 3 of these movies. Smartly they all stick close to around the 80 minute mark which means I was never bored. I was skeptical of found footage movies before having seen some especially bad ones but with films like this trilogy and the excellent "The Bay" I have gained a new appreciation for the format and understand why it is so popular these days.

[lester1/2jr]

Rec was awesome. I saw one of his earlier movies and it wasn't that great. horror movie

[JaseSF]

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959):  A game warden named Steve Benton (Ken Clark) investigates a series of mysterious deaths occurring in the Florida Everglades. Strangely enough all the alligators in this particular seem to have also curiously disappeared. Working alongside his girfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Sheppard) and her father Doc Grayson, things point to something decidedly unusual.

For a movie made in eight days and which runs for around only an hour, this manages to entertain despite Clark's lackluster lead performance for which he seems to have been mainly cast for his beefcake appearance. The film's real highlight though is cheesecake of the female variety with Yvette Vickers as local temptress Liz Walker who's grown bored with her fat, possessive husband Dave Walker (played by Bruno VeSota). The film's most memorable moments really feature her rubbing her legs and changing her clothes. Oh yeah, the leeches...they prove pretty cheesy monsters as guys dressed in inflatable suits go. Actually though the scenes of the leeches feeding on their prey do manage to deliver some chills (at least for its era) mostly due to some effective sound effects. I'll give this bad movie classic **1/2 out of ***** stars.

[claws]

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

After doing time for selling weed to a cop in uniform a biodynamic farmer named Ned returns home to live with his mother. As the living arrangements don't turn out as planned Ned ends up living with his three sisters, turning each of their lives upside down.

Charming and at times hilarious Indie comedy starring Paul Rudd who sort of acts like "The Dude" Lebowski. Great supporting cast including Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel. 4.5/5

[FatFreddysCat]

"Malibu Express" (1985)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnpypXUq4DE

Cody Abilene is a Bo Duke lookalike, DeLorean drivin' private eye who gets mixed up in corporate espionage and blackmail while trying to investigate a murder in this cheeseball T&A action comedy from Andy Sidaris. The story makes no sense, the acting is wooden, but there are tons of hot women (incl. the great Sybil Danning) and therefore tons of gratuitious boobage, which, let's face it, is the only reason anyone ever watched Sidaris' films in the first place. Hilariously bad but still kind of awesome in its own way.

[Jack]

Leprechaun 4: In Space (1996) - our nasty little Irishman is on another planet, and a group of space marines are sent in to kill him. Though it originally seems they've succeeded, he comes back to life aboard their spaceship and wreaks all sorts of havoc. A completely stupid and low budget horror/comedy, I loved it. They take everything that makes a bad movie good and crank it up a couple notches. Characters are very entertaining, Warwick Davis is in fine form as the Leprechaun, and the plot actually moves along at a fairly brisk pace. 5/5.

Doomsday Machine (1972) - the Chinese have developed some powerful nuke that can potentially destroy the entire world, so the US launches a ship into space as sort of a Noah's Ark of humanity. With 3 women and about 5 guys, 'cause that's a viable gene pool you know. So the earth is destroyed and these people basically fart around on this spaceship for 90 minutes. The last ten minutes have to be about the most boring thing I've ever seen committed to film. Don't have much good to say about this, the characters are dull, the plot is implausible and stupid - they have to trim the crew down to three people to save weight, yet there's hundreds of pounds of unneeded crap all over the place they could get rid of.  At least it didn't get painful until the very end. 2/5.

[Rev. Powell]

AMELIE (2001): A Parisian girl devotes herself to secretly helping those around her, but is it only because she's afraid to go after love herself? This crowd-pleasing comedy/romance with talking photographs and other magical elements is whimsical almost to the point of being flighty. Enjoyable for sure, but I wouldn't have minded seeing a few cannibals pop up. 4/5.

[Torgo]

AMELIE (2001): A Parisian girl devotes herself to secretly helping those around her, but is it only because she's afraid to go after love herself? This crowd-pleasing comedy/romance with talking photographs and other magical elements is whimsical almost to the point of being flighty. Enjoyable for sure, but I wouldn't have minded seeing a few cannibals pop up. 4/5.

I love Amelie. If somebody watched that film and don't immediately get in a much better mood, then that person has no soul.  

[alandhopewell]

Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959):  A game warden named Steve Benton (Ken Clark) investigates a series of mysterious deaths occurring in the Florida Everglades. Strangely enough all the alligators in this particular seem to have also curiously disappeared. Working alongside his girfriend Nan Grayson (Jan Sheppard) and her father Doc Grayson, things point to something decidedly unusual.

For a movie made in eight days and which runs for around only an hour, this manages to entertain despite Clark's lackluster lead performance for which he seems to have been mainly cast for his beefcake appearance. The film's real highlight though is cheesecake of the female variety with Yvette Vickers as local temptress Liz Walker who's grown bored with her fat, possessive husband Dave Walker (played by Bruno VeSota). The film's most memorable moments really feature her rubbing her legs and changing her clothes. Oh yeah, the leeches...they prove pretty cheesy monsters as guys dressed in inflatable suits go. Actually though the scenes of the leeches feeding on their prey do manage to deliver some chills (at least for its era) mostly due to some effective sound effects. I'll give this bad movie classic **1/2 out of ***** stars.

     This has been a favorite of mine since the Ghoulardi days; I currently own a copy, with which I creeped out Tracy, who'd never seen it- great atmosphere.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM0cT0BoZg0

[Jack]

^ I just ordered a copy of that from Amazon for four bucks.  You guys are a bad influence on me 

[JaseSF]

Attack of the Giant Leeches I do consider a bad movie must see classic. Probably should have given it *** stars instead of just two and 1/2. Anyways..

Teenage Devil Dolls (1955): A biographical look at the wrong choices made by a teenage girl that lead her down the path of motorcycle gangs and eventually narcotics drug addiction.

The title for this is rather misleading. It's alternative title One Way Ticket to Hell is a much better choice and much more fitting for the subject matter. The other title has one imagining some type of horror plot instead a Juvenile delinquency inspired narrative. In fact, this rather reminds me somewhat of Dragnet especially as its told via flashbacks and narration from a detective working on the lead girl Cassandra (Barbara Marks)'s case. Sometimes its portrayal of drug addiction is downright laughable and especially dated seem the references to it ruining the woman's role as dutiful housewife (although the film does also prove unexpectedly interesting in its portrayal of men and the way women were treated at that time). At other times, it's surprising effective for the era and the filmmaker definitely did some actual research for this one. Looking up more about this, I discovered it was actually the master thesis presented by a film student and considering it, it's pretty well done overall. Sure, it has narration instead of dialogue which can be a bit trying at times but the story still manages to keep one interested throughout and it certainly doesn't overstay its welcome running at only about 1 hour long. It's only really disappointing because the alternative and perhaps more well-known title leads one to expect something this film is not. I'll give this *** out of ***** stars.

[Jack]

The Dunwich Horror (1970) - a rather dumb girl with no personality is taken in by a creepy guy. She gives him a ride home to his house in Dunwich, and he drugs her to make her sleep. Could have just had her watch this movie. Anyhow, he wants to sacrifice her to make "the old ones" come back. Meanwhile her college professor is investigating the history of Dunwich and trying to save her. This was a total snooze fest. I liked the theme music they played over the opening credits, but had no idea I'd be listening to it over and over throughout the entire movie. The bad guy was sedate and although he pulled off "creepy guy" pretty well, it was all too predictable. There was some good photography here and there and a hint of atmosphere, but the director threw in tons of scenes rendered in bright red, yellow, blue etc. Don't even know why, but besides being tiresome it just serves to date this thing now. 2/5.